A Twist in Time
by Evey Edge
Summary: Time agent alias "Max Rider" leaps through a rift in space and time and winds up in 21st century Cardiff bringing his troubles, aka arms dealer named Ritvik, with him. Jack shows up and is brought face to face with the one man he truly fears: himself. J/G
1. Chapter 1

Max Rider was definitely not having one of his better days. Yesterday he'd been a time agent, a hero, a poster boy for the peace keeping forces that kept the universal timeline intact. Today he was a presumed traitor, a disavowed agent, and best of all the soon to be victim of a pissed-off avian arms dealer.

He winced as he heard the sound of a storage container exploding. Judging by the volume, the former metal shed was about fifty yards away from the structure Max was currently hiding behind. Ritvik must have really lost his temper if he was bringing out the big guns. Not that Max hadn't known that already. Jumping through a temporary rift in time and space was something only a desperate or crazy man would do. Max, facing the business ends of 2 dozen sonic weapons, had been the former. Ritvik clearly had been the latter. Another explosion, this one much closer, served to emphasize that point.

"Max Rider!! Will you not face me, coward! I will have my vengeance for your abuse of my hospitality!" Max couldn't believe that this was how he was going to die, listening to the cliché rant of a madman. Well, at least he could spare himself the ravings. Max hit a button on his wrist strap blocking all com signals within a two mile radius. Now Ritvik could threaten all he wanted. Without the incoming waves to Max's translator, Ritvik's speech sounded like nothing more than the cooing of a New New New New New Earth dove/pigeon or digeon. It wasn't a noise that struck fear into the heart of anyone. Max would have even called the noise funny if he didn't remember that A) he was unarmed with no way to escape and B) Ritvik was carrying a weapon that could break him down into sub particles. Another container exploded, less than five yards away. It was such a crazy thing, for Max to die here, at the hands of a two-bit thug, in an unknown place and time, with a name he'd worn less than a week.

"Hey Big Bird! Why don't you put that thing down before you put someone's eye out?"

Max's hope immediately flared up within him. A third party might distract Ritvik for just long enough for Max to escape. The bay was only about a hundred behind him, but given he had no clue what century he was in or planet he was on, Max didn't want to risk it being toxic. Even if the water was unpolluted it wasn't like he'd be able to hold his breath underwater indefinitely. That left making a break for the city. When the next blast came, Max was ready, sprinting toward the distant lights for all he was worth. A brief thought of the other man passed through his mind. He pushed it aside. No time to regret the causalities while the battle was still underway. He'd almost made it to the parking lot when he heard a rapid succession of cooing close behind him.

Max froze and slowly turned around expecting an angry man-bird to be the last thing he'd ever see. He saw Ritvik alright, but it was the strangest thing, the homicidal maniac was looking at Max in utter terror and disbelief. Max was completely confused at Ritvik's sudden emotional change. Max was still unarmed and the man-bird was still holding an ultra powerful gun, not to mention the arsenal he kept strapped to his chest at all times. Surely it would only be a matter of seconds before the inter-galactic arms-dealer realized this and Max became atomic mist. At that moment Max heard a screech of car tires behind him.

"Hey beaky, you like guns? Try these on for size mate!" Max hit the floor at the same time Ritvik realized it was time to take off. Literally. The avian bent his knees and shot up into the night sky, barely escaping the bullets that followed him like a trail of angry bees. When Max turned to face his trigger-happy rescuer, he found himself looking into a pair of dark angry eyes that seemed to be focusing a fury of biblical proportion at him. He wasn't sure if he'd rather deal with Ritvik's specially adapted bazooka.

"What are you waiting for, an invitation?! Get in the bloody car NOW!!"


	2. Chapter 2

The woman who was driving hadn't said a word to Max since he had gotten into the large black SUV. She had kept her eyes glued to the road and her lips pressed together, determined either to ignore his existence or to stop herself from losing her grip on her temper. Maybe both. Max's experience with irate supervisors had taught him to fear the silence before the storm. He made an extra effort not to make any large movements or loud noises as he scanned the car for clues to his current location. The exterior of the car and the driver's clothes pointed to Earth, the original Earth, circa 2010 AD. The interior of the SUV was a different story. The gadgetry in the dashboard looked at least a hundred years too advanced for the rest of the vehicle.

"You. Are. Un-Believable." Apparently rage had triumphed over resolve. "I get a call from Ianto at 2 AM, 2 AM JACK, saying you've gone off to investigate a rift spike. Alone. By yourself! Well Jack, do you have something to say? Would you care to explain your mad behavior?" Max was pretty sure he had just been called Jack by this woman who he'd never met before. With those eyes and that fiery temper he'd have definitely remembered. He supposed "Jack" could be like "Buddy", "Freddie" or "Charlie", just a name for a man she didn't know. It didn't sound like that's what she meant though. It sounded like she was very angry with a specific man named Jack and for some reason she seemed to think that man was him.

Max suddenly realized the woman was staring at him, waiting for a response. Probably not the safest thing for her to be doing while driving, but luckily traffic was light. Max wasn't sure what exactly he should say. Admitting that he wasn't the man she thought he was, was a risky option. No way of telling how she'd react, and she had seemed pretty handy with those guns. Jack, whoever he was, seemed to have this woman as an ally, not to mention access to some technology that could be helpful whenever Ritvik decided to make his reappearance. So Max would be Jack for now.

"What? Nothing to say? Cat got your tongue? Or was it the oversized bird-man with enough fire power to blast an army of tanks to bits? Did you even stop and think before you went barging in there? About Torchwood? About Ianto? About me? No of course not! I'm bloody Captain Jack Harkness, I can do whatever I sodding feel like. Never mind the people who need me, who depend on me. I want to go off alone, play the big sodding hero, prove that I'm this great important indestructible being! Well Jack it doesn't work like that. We're a team. You, me, and Ianto. We are all that's left and you will NOT desert us again!"

Even though the woman's eyes were back on the road Max could see that she was barely holding back tears. This Jack clearly had a lot to answer for. He wanted to do something, to comfort this stranger who tried and failed to keep her emotions buried deep within herself. Max couldn't remember ever being that way, wearing his heart on his sleeve where anyone might crush it. He couldn't decide if this proved her vulnerability or her strength. He also didn't know how to help. What would Jack have done if he was here? Made comforting promises? Held her hand? Kissed her until she could remember nothing but his touch? Max didn't know and in the absence of knowledge, he abstained from all contact. The woman didn't seem surprised by Max's inaction. She didn't glance over at him as he sat stiffly in his seat staring out at the road ahead. From this response Max could only conclude what he had suspected before, that Jack had a lot to answer for.


	3. Chapter 3

Max both relieved and nervous when the woman stopped the car in front what looked like a run down tourist shack

Max both relieved and nervous when the woman stopped the car in front what looked like a run down tourist shack. The relief stemmed from the fact he would no longer be confined in a small space with a woman he felt an inexplicable desire to comfort. Unfortunately Max had been unable to discern the nature of "Jack's" relationship with his rescuer. He knew they worked together, that much was obvious from her angry rant. He knew she cared about him, worried about his safety. He also knew she had no problem expressing her opinions about his reckless behavior. This only told Max she and Jack were close. Hardly surprising given the bonds that form in death and death situations usually are. Were they also friends? Lovers? If she'd only look at him, Max would know. But she didn't. Although this nagged as his curiosity, Max had to admit this might have been to his advantage.

The woman had mistaken Max for this Jack person. Since she didn't seem insane, Max had to conclude that there was a physical resemblance between himself and the man she had come to rescue. Max found it hard to believe there was anybody else universe that good-looking, but it was the only explanation he could come up with. How strong the resemblance was, was up for debate. The driver obviously knew Jack pretty well, but maybe she was near-sighted. It was dark outside and inside the car and, like he said before, she hadn't been looking at him that closely. In a brightly lit room, standing only a few feet away, Max had a bad feeling he wouldn't pass her scrutiny. She would find out Max was not Jack and then what would she do?

Max had figured out Jack was the voice he'd heard taunting Ritvik, right before the explosion that had allowed Max to escape. His doppelganger was probably dead. Self-preservation told Max he should be far away when the woman with the fiery temper and semiautomatic weapons made that discovery.

"Well go on, get inside, Ianto's probably waiting with some freshly brewed coffee. Not that you deserve it. I'll be in as soon as I've parked." That sounded almost like a threat, which she had no way of knowing it was. The longer he was with her, the more likely it was that his cover would be blown. He could knock her out and make a run for it. He'd lost Ritvik, at least for now, and with his skills he could lose himself on a planet this size. He could hide. Except Max didn't want to hide. It wasn't in his nature. He wanted to fight, to end this whole damn thing, and then he wanted to get the hell out of here. This woman was the only link he had to the tools he'd need, so he would use her. He would use the face of the man who'd died in his stead. He would use anything and anyone he had to in order to get what he wanted.


	4. Chapter 4

Max's first impression upon entering the building was that he'd made some kind of mistake

Max's first impression upon entering the building was that he'd made some kind of mistake. This badly lit shack with its display of brochures and bead covered doorway couldn't possibly have anything to do with the woman who drove a high-tech SUV and shot at alien arms dealers without so much as blinking. He figured he must have missed a secret entrance. That was when the gorgeous man in the suit walked in.

"Good morning Jack. The coffee's brewing right now, I'll have it in your office in five-" The man, who had been flipping through a file he'd been holding until this moment, looked up at Max and stopped dead. Max thought for certain he'd been found out. "What are you wearing?" Max checked his outfit reflexively.

The first person Max encountered on this side of rift was a brain-dead thug who'd tried to rob him. It really made a strong argument for universality of aggression and stupidity. Once Max had incapacitated his attacker, he'd abandoned the robes he'd worn as an ambassador in Ritvik's headquarters. The leather jacket, white t-shirt and jeans obviously weren't as good a camouflage as he'd thought.

"Would you prefer I was naked?" Max hoped he hadn't landed in one of the old earth centuries where a comment like that would get him shot. From the way the man blushed, Max knew his hopes were realized.

"Hardly relevant to the question at hand. You have to admit your outfit is a bit of a departure from your typical style." Max figured seduction was the way to go here. He leaned over the desk until he was inches from the man's-Ianto's, the woman had said his name was Ianto, lips.

"I thought it was time for a change, but if you don't like the clothes I'd be more than happy to take them off." Max winked suggestively and would have down a hell of a lot more if he hadn't been interrupted by a voice from behind him.

"As much as we'd all like to see that, maybe we should be focusing on the mad bird-man terrorizing the city." The woman was back and obviously still in a bad mood. Even scowling, Max had to admit she was gorgeous. Between her and Ianto, this Jack had clearly had very pleasant working environment. Hopefully Max would have time to experience it much more intimately before he left.

"Sorry, Gwen." Ianto blushed slightly as he reached under his desk. Max forced himself not to react as a door rolled back to reveal a hide tunnel. Ianto started down the passage first, Max followed, and the woman named Gwen brought up the rear. Max slowed down until he was walking right beside her.

"So do you have a problem with the new look? I personally thought the jacket made me look kind of dashing." Max flashed her never-fail ultra charming smile, but Gwen's response was only to shake her head at him. He was completely dumbfounded. No one was immune to the smile.

"Jack of all the changes you've made since Tosh and Owen…" Gwen's voice caught in her throat but she pushed through it, "What you wear is the least of my worries."

There it was again, the twinge of guilt for something Max hadn't done. It irritated him because he had plenty of his own regrets without adding the dead man's to the pile. That faster he got out of this place, the better.


	5. Chapter 5

What had started out as a tacky reception area had become a pretty impressive underground base

What had started out as a tacky reception area had become a pretty impressive underground base. Max focused on not gaping too hard. Jack had seen this set-up thousands of times before. The place resembled a huge converted sewer. The word Torchwood was stamped across a few walls. Max remembered Gwen had mentioned Torchwood inside the car. It had to be the name of their organization. Max supposed he'd heard worse.

"Ianto as soon as you've got the coffee, I need you to monitor the police radio. We need to intercept any calls pertaining to a large bird man. And bring Jack's mug to his office. He has some over due paper work he needs to catch up on." The Ianto disappeared down one of the many flights of stairs. Max was alone with Gwen, for the moment at least. Now was the time to make his move.

She had gone to stand by one of the five computers in this corner of the base. Gwen, Ianto, Jack made three, so two were unaccounted for. Should Max be expecting them at any moment? But no, Gwen had said something about them being all that's left. Just now in the tunnel she'd mentioned names. Tosh. Owen. Max felt a chill, like someone walking over his grave. He was planning on assaulting an already crippled unit. He pushed the guilt aside as he had done with increasing regularity over the years. He wasn't planning on killing them, just relieving them of a few of their toys. And ok it probably was going to involve a little coercion, but the bottom line was he wouldn't leave any long term damage. Max started to casually stroll toward Gwen. She kept her eyes glued to the computer screen.

"Yes Jack?" Even though she wasn't looking at him Gwen seemed reasonably alert. He would have to move slow, be subtle.

"I was just wondering what paperwork it was I am supposed to be doing."

"Don't start with me about this again Jack. We agreed you would make you selections by last Wednesday and today is Saturday. Putting it off won't make it any easier and the longer we wait the more we endanger ourselves and this city." Max had to stumble in a not-for-profit group. It was a lot easier concuss emotionless mercenaries than sad do-gooders with beautiful green eyes. If he could get Gwen to leave, Max wouldn't have to bruise that pretty head of hers.

"You're absolutely right. How about I work on that, while you go home and get some rest." Gwen snorted but it was a cute snort. Max was beginning to like her more and more but the minute.

"Right and come back in six hours to find you've gone swaning off again. Not bloody likely."

"I learned my lesson, I swear. From now on I am Mr. Team Player." Max mock saluted her without thinking. Gwen's lips twitched and suddenly her scowl had righted itself. Max couldn't believe what he'd just done. He'd had no idea whether Jack was the kind of man who joked with his colleagues at three am. It had been a reckless action, but he'd wanted to make her smile. A poor excuse. Fortunately he didn't seem to have done any harm.

"Jack, you won't be trying to get me out of the Hub so you can spend a little quality time with Ianto, now would you?" So Max had gotten the right vibe off of the coffee boy. Jack was indeed a lucky bastard. Or had been up until he was blown to bits.

"Well, maybe you got me there. But seriously you must be exhausted. Go home. I had a long nap this afternoon, so I am fully recharged." Gwen looked up from her work station.

"A nap? Really?" Her voice had a bit of skepticism in it, like she wasn't sure heard she'd what heard.

"Yeah. fours hours at least. I've been sleeping kind of erratically since…" Max let his voice trail off with just the right amount of regret for whatever it was that left the team down two members. A shudder of some kind passed quickly across Gwen's face. Max hadn't been able to get a read on it before it passed and her face became grave once more. Whatever had happened it obviously left her haunted.

"Fresh brewed coffee, Jack?" Ianto had suddenly appeared behind Max with a steaming hot mug. It smelled delicious.

"Thanks Ianto." Max took the coffee with the one hand and rested the other on Ianto's shoulder. Even through the suit he could feel the muscle definition. Ianto was Jack confirmed lover after all, and Max was never one to pass up an opportunity when one presented itself. Max looked over at Gwen, thinking it was a shame it was the three of them hadn't met under different circumstances.

"So Gwen?" She looked at Max and Ianto for a second and then smiled an exhausted smile.

"You're right, I'm completely done in. I'll just be a few more minutes down here and I'll be through." One down and one to go.

"And I will be off to do my paperwork if my handsome escort would lead the way." Ianto smiled in anticipation and headed up the stairs. Max thought sometimes it was too easy being him.

"Oh Ianto? Once you get Jack all setup with the profiles, could you pop back down here? I need a word before I leave."

"I'll be right there Gwen!" Ianto looked back at Max and nodded to the office at the end of the platform. "I left the folders in the center of your desk. The blue are the computer technicians, the red are the doctors." Ianto moved to brush past Max, but Max put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"Hurry back."

"I always do." Max allowed himself a bit of a self-satisfied smile. Clearly a face wasn't the only thing he had in common with this stranger from the twenty-first century.

When Max walked into to Jack's office he felt like he'd been thrown back into another age. The room had a slower more dated feel to it than the futurist décor downstairs. Max approved. He collapsed in the swivel chair behind the desk. Having a little time to kill and feeling curious about the man whose life he'd borrowed, Max opened the bottom drawer and saw a small dark box waiting for him there. Gingerly he pulled it out removed the lid.

Photographs. The first was color. Five people sitting at a bar. On the far left was a thin man he'd never before, smirking like he'd just told an outrageously inappropriate joke. Gwen was next, laughing, hitting the thin man's arm while her eyes turned up toward…Max's heart leapt up into his throat…Jack, that could only be Jack. The man smiling on the third bar stool wearing the dated military coat could have been his twin. Somehow Max had thought Gwen and Ianto had both been really, really bleary-eyed. It was a bizarre coincidence but not strangest he'd ever encountered. Moving on, he slid his eyes to the next figure in the picture. Ianto looked strangely released, laughing nearly as Gwen and looking at Jack in the same way. The three of them made an interesting focal point for the picture. The last person at the bar was beautiful Asian woman. Her body language was slightly uncomfortable but she appeared to be joining in the joke with everyone else. Her eyes were fixed on the man sitting farthest from her. Max wondered what the story was there. With a jolt he realized whatever it had been, it was over. Owen and Tosh. Torchwood's two empty desks. Quickly he flipped to the next photo.

It too was in color, a wedding picture. The woman in the gown was Gwen and the man dancing with her was Jack. The look the photographer had captured on both faces was…rapturous. It was wonder bordering on pain. That frozen moment held a more intense love than Max had seen in any of the galaxies he'd visited. The unmistakable sound of a cocking gun jerked him out of his private revelry. The same woman from the photo stood in the doorway, but the look she had in her eyes was nothing like love.

"I've got some bad news for you, mate. Jack doesn't sleep."


	6. Chapter 6

Until normal circumstances there was nothing Max found more attractive than a beautiful woman with a gun

Until normal circumstances there was nothing Max found more attractive than a beautiful woman with a gun. Except maybe a naked beautiful woman with a gun. The overall effect was kind of ruined for him now however, because the gun was aiming at him.

"Get up from the desk slowly and put your hands on your head." Max did as he was instructed, wondering how he was going to find his way out of this one. What the hell did she mean "Jack doesn't sleep"? Everybody slept. The human body required it to continue to function.

"Gwen, what are you doing?"

"You don't know me. You don't get to call me by my first name. Put these on." Gwen kept the gun trained on him as she tossed a pair of handcuffs onto the desk. Max could see this was going to have a very bad outcome for him. Gwen looked like she was inches from squeezing the trigger and she didn't even know what had happened to the real Jack yet. Confession at this stage would be fatal, so Max was left with the option of bluffing his way out.

"If you really wanted to, all you had to do was ask." Max grinned in the exact same manner as the man from the first photo. His face was his ace in the hole, and at this point the only card Max had left to play. Unfortunately Gwen, instead of being charmed, became even more irate.

"SHUT UP! Stop acting liking him!" Gwen's voice shook but her gun hand remained steady. Still the tremor belied some emotion instability. That could be very dangerous or it could work to his advantage.

"I was just making a joke, Gwen. You're tired. We've all been under a lot of emotional stress. But I swear it's me." She looked conflicted, indecisive, and most of all tired. Gwen blinked, inhaled and exhaled and when she was done her eyes had become cooler, more distanced.

"Prove it. Prove to me you're Jack." This was why improvised identity theft was always risky. The compiling of personal data beforehand was a necessary step for just these situations. Max had gleaned only a little about Jack in the short time he'd been playing the role, and none of it was near good enough to convince Gwen. Except maybe what he'd found in the photograph.

"Gwen, I love you." The words came out of Max's mouth with more ease and sincerity than even he'd anticipated. Hope. Skepticism. Joy. Pain. Gwen's face betrayed such a spectrum of emotions Max had trouble catching them all. For a moment Max thought she would give in and lower the gun. Then the moment passed.

"Fuck you. Jack would never say that to me."


	7. Chapter 7

If Max could still trust his ability to read body language, he would say that Ianto was uncertain

If Max could still trust his ability to read body language, he would say that Ianto was uncertain. The slight slump in the shoulders, the way he kept shifting his weight back and forth indicated his discomfort seeing a weapon pointed at someone identical to his lover. Max's instincts told him to use that, but his recent experience left him somewhat reluctant.

Max had been sure, so sure about what he'd seen in that photograph. His skill at interpreting facial expression and body language was legendary in the time agency. Yet if the way Gwen practically shoved him down the flight of stairs was any indication, he had been wrong. Very wrong.

"Ianto, what do we have?" The coffee boy seemed to be scanning Max with the device he was holding. Max could only wait to see what the machine what looking for.

"Two readings of alien technology. Right jacket pocket and left wrist. No identifiable weapons." Max was for the first time relieved Ritvik had been so thorough confiscating all his weapons. Max had been force to surrender everything he'd had on him, including the compact laser gun he never enjoyed retrieving. Everything except his wrist strap. That, Max had explained to Ritvik, a time agent never relinquishes.

"Check it out. I'll cover you from here. Shape-shifter or whatever the hell you are, you so much as twitch-" Max could pretty easily fill in the rest. She'd pump him full more lead than is held in a pencil truck. She'd put more holes in him than there were in the ozone. There were only so many good gun point threats. Didn't make the person using them any less serious.

Ianto did as he was told, moving behind Max so Gwen still had a clear shot at his chest. First he went for Max's pocket and pulled out a small metallic cylinder. Max's consolation prize from his encounter with Ritvik. He tried to cover for himself.

"I found that at rift site. I didn't tell you about it because if I had I knew you would have never gone home and gotten the rest you clearly need." Gwen scowled, apparently not swayed by his explanation.

"Left wrist Ianto. I'm sure you'll have a good reason for-" She stopped when she saw what Max's now rolled up sleeve revealed.

"Jack's wrist strap. How did you get that? Where's Jack!!" Max was completely confused. No one outside the time agency had access to the gadget he wore on his wrist, yet Gwen recognized as an accessory Jack wore. Jack, a man who dressed as though he was from another time and looked exactly like Max. A man who had most likely just died in a massive explosion. Oh damn.

Max was so stunned he didn't realize Gwen had leapt at him until he hit the concrete floor.

"WHERE IS HE?! WHERE IS HE?!" Despite the fact she was beating him pretty thoroughly Max could only put up the bare minimum self-defense. His mind was in too much turmoil. It's not every day you watch yourself die. Suddenly the pain stopped. Max was vaguely aware Ianto had dragged Gwen off of him. He could hear their conversation but their words meant nothing to him.

"Get off me Ianto! He did something to Jack and he knows where he is!"

"Gwen stop and think a minute. Have you considered your wrong? That the man you've handcuffed and beaten looks like Jack, moves like Jack, talks like Jack, and has Jack's wrist strap. Don't you think it's possible he actually IS Jack?"

"Ianto it's not him! Just look at him!"

"I am."

"No. Look into his eyes. Can't you see the difference?"

"For starters he's no where near as good-looking." Instantly Max recognized the voice. He looked up from where he lay and saw a man descending from the ceiling on some kind of platform. Max had to admit for a dead man, Jack looked pretty damn good.


	8. Chapter 8

Captain Jack Harkness was definitely not having one of his better days

Captain Jack Harkness was definitely not having one of his better days. At this point he could barely remember what a better day felt like. It was a little over five weeks since his world had made the smallest bit of sense. It wasn't only the loss of Tosh and Owen, although sometimes at night he thought he heard the clicking of a keyboard or the echo of a snarky comment drifting through the Hub. It was also Ianto and Gwen. Or more accurately the horrible images that flashed across his mind whenever he saw them. The specifics varied depending on whatever case Torchwood was currently working on, but the overall scenario never changed. His lover and the woman he loved dead and him, Captain Jack Harkness covered in their blood. The visions were powerful to the point of being debilitating. He'd come to face the truth. Jack could no longer lead them into battle.

He'd made adjustments to the way he ran Torchwood. He'd rerouted the rift spike alarm so it would appear as a pop up on his computer, and not an alarm during regular Torchwood hours. Jack would make an excuse to leave and go and investigate. The system had worked the first two times he'd done it. The first was a man on a sailboat reemerging after a two year absence. Jack had had no trouble tracking down the man's family. Everything was just as the man had left it, kids, wife all delighted to see him again. Jack hadn't stuck around for long. The second spike had been an artifact, a metallic prism which seemed to alter its properties any time it was left unobserved. He had found it in a landfill. Jack had barely had time to slip the object into the unidentified backlogged pile before he was confronted by Gwen.

She had noticed the particular state of his clothes, covered as they were with rubbish and demanded an explanation. To distract her he had deliberately provoked a fight and sent her home for the week. Gwen had thrown a paperweight at his head before she stormed out. That was his Gwen, she never held back. The next few days had been quiet ones. Ianto, ever the good soldier, had said nothing about Jack's erratic behavior. He didn't ask for an explanation why Jack hadn't made a move on him in more than a month. That was Ianto, willing to trust Jack implicitly, no matter what it cost him.

It had occurred to Jack after a few bottles of liquor he'd drunk the night he'd lost Tosh and Owen that in an odd way he'd been lucky. If losing two member of his family had been Jack's punishment for what had happened to Gray, then he'd gotten of as lightly as he could have. He had loved Tosh and Owen and if he could have he would have given his life to save them. That didn't change the fact his despair would have been a thousand times worse had it been Gwen and Ianto frozen in cold storage. Jack's favorites had been spared and the relief he felt about that fact sickened him to his core.

This morning when the alarm had sounded Jack had actually hoped he'd find something to shoot at. He'd thought he'd gotten lucky when he'd found the alien blasting at storage containers. He still wasn't exactly sure how what happened next occurred. Maybe Jack had gotten rusty or maybe he'd just gotten curious what a weapon of the power would do to him. All Jack knew was that the bird man pulled the trigger and when he'd woken up his shirt and coat had a hole about the size of a melon in the front and through the back. From the puddle he'd been sitting in, Jack could tell the blood loss had been impressive. Jack didn't care too much about that, he was more concerned he'd need to find a new 1940's military coat. They weren't too easy to come by in the local shops.

The bird man had vanished. That gave Jack one more thing to do before dawn. It was critical neither of the others knew what he was up too. It wasn't safe to have them in the field. They could die. Jack couldn't. Why shouldn't he be the only one in the line of fire? Jack knew Ianto and Gwen wouldn't agree. He also knew they'd figure it out eventually. What then? Jack had stared at his box of amnesia pills and asked himself that question again and again. Would he, could he do the right thing? What was the right thing? Who did he owe more loyalty to, his team or the world? What would the Doctor say? If it had been Rose or the world what would he have done? Probably found a way to do both. Well Jack wasn't the Doctor.

The SUV was not where Jack had parked it. Instead he'd found a car next to his spot that had not been there previously. Gwen's car. That made absolutely no sense to Jack. Gwen had risen before dawn, driven all the way over here, and what stolen his car? Was this her idea of punishing him for taking off on his own? She obviously hadn't looked for him or he would have woken up getting an earful in the back of the SUV. It didn't make sense. Whatever her reasons for leaving him here, he had no doubt she'd explain them when he got back to the Hub. Probably at full bellow.

Jack worried about the implications of Gwen finding him here tonight as he hotwired Gwen's car. He told himself it didn't mean she knew everything. This alarm had gone of in the middle of night. So what if he didn't call her and Ianto in? He hadn't always done so before Tosh and Owen. Besides Gwen was still on suspension. Jack prepared his cover story, but he was still troubled that she had found him. Either she or Ianto was starting to watch him a little too closely. That had to stop before they caught on and Jack was forced to make a choice he'd regret.

He parked Gwen's car in a public lot. Only the SUV got space in the underground garage adjoining the base. Jack decided to take the scenic route down. When you're about to do battle with someone you take any edge you can get. Descending from the ceiling might remind Gwen of her early days at Torchwood, when she was new, unsure, and had looked to him for guidance. The image of "the authority figure" might help him now. Jack had to admit it was probably wishful thinking on his part. From day one Gwen hadn't been afraid to challenge him, to question how he ran things. He could remember vividly the way she'd looked at him and demanded he help save the girl who'd been possessed by an alien. Jack often wondered if that was the moment he'd fallen in love with her.

Jack closed his eyes and activated the lift. He'd barely made it through the floor before he heard the yelling.

"-That the man you've handcuffed and beaten looks like Jack, moves like Jack, talks like Jack, and has Jack's wrist strap. Don't you think it's possible he actually IS Jack?" What was Ianto saying? Looking over the edge of the lift he saw Ianto restraining Gwen from attacking a man in handcuffs on the floor.

"Ianto it's not him! Just look at him!" Jack stared at the man, hardly believing what he was seeing. Apart from the clothing, a worn leather jacket, white tee-shit and jeans, the stranger could have been his double.

"I am." Apparently there had been a case of mistaken identity.

"No. Look into his eyes. Can't you see the difference?" Of course Gwen could spot the imposter. She knew Jack better than anyone.

"For starters he's no where near as good-looking." All three of them looked up, but Jack only had eyes his for his twin. It was uncanny and not just for him either. Unless the man on the floor was an actor of unparallel quality, he was just as shocked to see Jack as Jack was to see him.

When that rift spike alarm had sounded at 2 am.


	9. Chapter 9

"Okay nobody moves

"Okay nobody moves!" Jack thought Gwen looked pretty cute as she moved her gun back and forth between him and the man on the floor. Stressed and disoriented, but still cute.

"That might be a problem until I reached the ground floor. You might have noticed this lift doesn't have an emergency stop button." As he finished just as the descending slab touched down on concrete. "There. Now I can freeze." Jack put his hands up in apparent surrender.

"Who are you?" This was going to be a long night if he didn't get this whole thing cleared up fast. Torchwood had enough problems with the bird man and his clone to deal with.

"Captain Jack Harness also known as your boss also known as the man whose SUV you stole today. Behind you is Ianto Jones who I hired shortly after he helped me catch the dinosaur that lives in this building. He makes excellent coffee, but it is not his most impressive skill. You are Gwen…Williams." No matter how many time he said it, it never any easier. He could taste it in his throat like vomit just waiting to come up. "Formerly PC Cooper of the Cardiff police. On your first day of work you taught me what it means to be human in the 21st century and I asked you not to let this place consume you. If that's not enough to convince you, then shoot me in the head." He stared over the barrel of Gwen's gun and into her eyes. Jack felt naked, as he also did when she looked at him like this. It wasn't a naked like she was undressing him with her eyes. It was like she was seeing him, the him he kept under the arrogant flirty exterior. It was at once freeing and terrifying. She knew. Gwen didn't have time to lower her gun before the man on the floor spoke to Jack.

"Excuse me, but have we met before?" There was line that had been used one time too many.

"Its kind of an odd time for you to be coming on to me, don't you think? Even gorgeous men like yourself don't get a free pass to impersonate me." Jack was still marveling how close the resemblance was. Apart from the clothes, the slight shorter hair, and, he had to acknowledge, a few less wrinkles, the man was Jack. He'd have guessed shape shifter if it weren't for the fact the scanner would have picked up alien DNA walking through the front door.

"This isn't a pickup line, the fate of this planet is at stake. Have you seen me before?" The fate of the planet? Jack didn't like the sound of that.

"The only time I've ever seen that face is when I've looked in the mirror. What did you mean about the fate of the world? Are you threatening us?" To Jack's surprise the man on the floor started to laugh. Jack was getting seriously pissed. First this guy had impersonated him, brought trouble to Jack's house, and now he was laughing about it.

"Hey don't blame me for being the bearer of bad news. This world is dead. Everyone on this planet is dead. We're underground and in some kind of old sewage system so we probably have an hour or two. Only one thing left to do really. Well two, but I'd rather not rush the experience with either one. I'll leave it up to you. Gwen or Ianto? They are both gorgeous, so either way's find with me." Jack had heard enough. He strode over to the captive, ready to beat information out of him. Jack was surprised by the man's quickness as he leapt to his feet and backpedaled away.

"Don't touch me! Are you trying to bring the Reapers down on us sooner rather than later!" Jack froze at the mention of the word "Reapers". He hadn't heard the term since his early years at the academy. The first and last thing he'd been taught was not to mess with timelines. The Time Agency corrected mistakes it did not create them. Change nothing, leave no trace, and never ever cross your own timeline. If the man was to be believed, Jack had just failed to abide by rule three and the world would suffer the consequences.

"What's he talking about Jack? What's a Reaper?" Jack couldn't bring himself to answer Gwen with the truth. Reapers weren't like the threats they faced before. If he had brought them down on this time and place, there was nothing that could be done. It would be wiped from the face of existence.

"He's lying, he has to be. Ianto bring up the CCTV cameras of the main residential areas nearest the Hub." It would start here, a radiate out from the point in the temporal disruption. Funny, that bird-man he had faced was starting to look benign in comparison.

"This is a waste of time. What you should be focusing on is finding a way to get us all out of here. I'd say we use my wrist strap, but it's a little low on power at the moment. How about we use yours?" Jack said nothing, he just scanned the screen for evidence of the winged monsters.

"Jack, what is going on?"

"Not now Ianto."

"Don't you dare tell him "not now" Jack! We don't have time for your enigmatic, lone ranger crap. If there is a threat to this planet, you'd better bloody well tell us now!" Jack didn't have to look up to see the Gwen was furious. He'd grown so attuned to her this last two years he could feel her moods as surely as he could feel his own. What could he say though? That for the second time in three months he had brought death to the people he'd sworn to protect? Not likely.

"Well if he won't tell you sweetheart, I will. Personally I don't how he can deny you anything when you have your hands on your hips like that. Hey Jack does she do this a lot? Because it is kind of adorable." Jack swiveled in his chair to face what may actually be his younger self.

"You kept your mouth shut." Jack's stone cold stare was usually enough to freeze people to the spot where the stood. It had no effect at all on his double. A really bad sign.

"Hey you're not the boss of me. Not yet anyway. And besides all of my favorite activity I do with my mouth open." Jack wanted to hit him so desperately his fingers literally ached. Could this man really be him? Had he ever been that flippant in the face of so much potential disaster?

"Is it possible he's actually worse than Jack?" Ianto sounded astonished and Jack wasn't really surprised. His team had never lived in the 51st century, so they didn't know the way he spoke was typical of the period. They took it for granted the innuendos were just a part of his personality as opposed to a result of his upbringing.

"Worse, no. Better, yes, considering how frigid he seems to be. Shame Gwen didn't go home when she said she would. You would have had the chance to find out for yourself." Frigid? Frigid?! In the hundred and fifty odd years no one had ever applied that term to Jack.

"Though I'm sure Ianto would have enjoyed a comparative study, he did have more important things to do. Like capturing the man masquerading as his boss for instance. God knows what you would have done to him if I had left him alone with you." Jack was being to wonder how convincing the other man had been. How far had he gotten before Gwen had realized the truth? Jack was worried in particular about actions the prisoner had taken under his name that might have tipped her off.

"Don't be so dramatic, he would have enjoyed ninety-nine percent of it. I wasn't going to cause any permanent damage and he would have gotten one hell of a consolation prize. And under the circumstances I think the term "masquerading" is a little inaccurate. Technically I am your boss, isn't that right Jack?" He won't say it. Not until he knew for sure.

"What do you mean?"

"The truth is, handsome, you were right. I am Jack. Or I will be Jack. Judging by the couple extra wrinkles and pounds I'd say I've got about five years. Only now it looks like I'll never get there. By meeting my older self I have disrupted my own timeline and any minute the Reapers will show up to wipe this branch of time from existence. Again I would like to repeat my suggestion that we get the hell out of here."


	10. Chapter 10

"No one's going anywhere

From the silence following his speech Max surmised Gwen and Ianto were having a hard time processing what he'd just said. Clearly the concept of crossing timelines was foreign to them. He could only hope they had steep learning curves.

"What do you mean you're Jack? Jack is sitting right there. You can't both be Jack."

"Actually we can. It's one of the dangers of being a time agent. He's never explained any of this to you?" Max could read the answer in the look exchanged between Gwen and Ianto. Clearly his future self kept quite a few secrets. From the look Jack was now giving him, Max surmised there would be consequences to giving them away.

"I prefer to keep the past behind me, where it belongs." A not too subtle nudge that Max was unwelcome here. He felt a little insulted. What was it about Max that his future self disapproved of so much? Well screw him, Max wasn't exactly thrilled he was going to grow into such a tight ass.

"It doesn't matter what you prefer or you don't prefer. Your past is standing right here and you need to deal with it sooner rather than later. If you don't want to tell your team about me, fine. I'll tell them myself. The wrist strap Jack wears is what allows a time agent to move back and forth through time and space. The trouble with this kind of technology is that it makes for non-linear timelines. I have no way of knowing where and when my future selves will be. I can only remember where I have been."

"So you're saying this is my fault!" How nice, Jack had stopped ignoring him again.

"I'm saying one of us altered the timeline, and it wasn't me." Well technically it had been me, just not the me I am right now, but the me…Christ meeting yourself was confusing. Even if it wasn't potentially world-ending, Max still wouldn't recommend it.

"I'm sorry but how do you know the timeline's altered? Couldn't this, you two meeting, be how it was supposed to happen?" And Gwen moves to the head of her class. That had been the exact thing Max had hoped for. Two bad they'd both been wrong.

"If that was the case Jack would have remembered this encounter, because he would have lived it already. Something has been changed and this world will suffer the consequences. Which is why we need to go." If these people couldn't get with the program fast, they were all dead. Max wasn't going anywhere without them for two reasons,. The first and the more pressing of the two was that he no longer had the means to transport himself anywhere. The distant, but present second was that he liked these people. He wouldn't let them die if there was something he could do about it.

"No one's going anywhere. This is Torchwood. We don't run from fights." Gwen was doing the 'hands on her hips' thing again. He hadn't been lying when he'd asked Jack how he was able to resist her when she did that. It was a gesture of such stubborn willfulness Max wasn't sure if he'd wanted to violently shake her or take her right there in front of Ianto and Jack. If he'd had a little more time before the Reapers came, there would be no competition, but this was life or death.

"That's sweet, really it is, but I don't think you understand what Reapers are. Jack would you help me out here?" Max turned to face his future self, only to be looking down the barrel of a pistol. Max kept his voice light a flippant although inside he was terrified. Jack had pulled a gun on him. If there was one thing he knew about himself it was he never drew on something he wasn't prepared to shoot. "Hey Jack, what are you doing?"

"Protecting this planet." Max didn't like the sound of that.


	11. Chapter 11

"You do realize killing me will kill you right

"You do realize killing me will kill you right? I mean, you'll cease to exist. Funny, I never thought of myself as suicidal. Maybe a little recklessly on occasion, but I've always thought my self-preservation instinct was pretty strong." For the second time in the past twenty-four hours Max was facing a death he had not seen coming. The first had been easier to accept. Despite his 'bird-brain' Ritvik was generally considered armed and dangerous. Max could have come to grips with being murdered by the arms dealer. But being shot by himself, that one was out of left field.

"I've learned something in the hundred-odd years it has been since I've been you: Some things are worth dying for." A hundred-odd years? What the hell was Jack talking about? Maybe it would be better if it all ended now. Max would never have to become this crazy person with a martyr complex. Apparently Gwen didn't share Max's view. She had put herself in the path of Jack's gun.

"Gwen, get out of the way."

"No Jack. You are not doing this."

"I have to Gwen. The Reapers-"

"Haven't appeared. And maybe they won't. Maybe there is something going on here we haven't thought of."

"Gwen, he can die. I can die. It'll be like I was never here. Susie. Tosh. Owen. Ianto. You. All the people I've hurt. All the people I endanger, safe, if just do this one thing."

"No, not safe Jack. Dead. Forget changing the timeline and Reapers and all that shit. What about all those people you've saved. What about all off the people you will save. I want Owen and Tosh back too, but you can't Jack. You just can't."

"No, what I can't do is watch another person die because of me.You and Ianto, it's just a matter of time. Don't ask me to watch to you die Gwen."

"I'm asking you to let me live Jack. The person I am would not exist without you. Please Jack. Please."

Max saw a world of sacrifice behind Jack's eyes as he uncocked and holstered his gun. That was a little too intense for his liking. Not that Max wasn't grateful to Gwen for talking Jack down, but now he had to deal with the aftermath of that conversation. She'd stepped in front of a loaded gun for him. Or at least a version of him. The way she'd spoken to Jack, the way he'd looked and sounded when he'd spoken to her. He and Ianto might as well have not been in the room. It was like looking at the photograph all over again.

And yet Ianto was supposedly Jack's lover. The unbelievably good-looking man was busying himself tidying up one of the desks, apparently oblivious to what had just occurred between his colleague and his boss. Maybe the pretense would fool the casual observer, but Max could detect slightly raised color in Ianto's cheeks and a minutely irregular breathing pattern. All in all, a credible performance. Undoubtedly a practiced one. What was he to Jack? What was she to Jack? What would they one day be to him?


	12. Chapter 12

Jack had seen and done plenty of crazy things in his time, but sitting across the table from his much younger self was currently topping the list

Jack had seen and done plenty of crazy things in his time, but sitting across the table from his much younger self was currently topping the list. An hour had past before Jack felt comfortable enough to quit watching the monitors. No Reapers were coming. Thank God. The team had come up with only two explanations. The first was that their captive wasn't actually an earlier version of Jack. A quick retinal scan disproved that theory. The computer registered a 100 match for Captain Jack Harkness. The second explanation wasn't really an explanation at all. It was only an acknowledgement that there was something they hadn't thought of yet. Jack had decided it was time for his double to do a bit explaining. He hoped the man could provide enough information to sort out this whole mess. On Jack's orders Gwen had escorted the prisoner down to the interrogation room. The man hadn't been too happy about it.

"Why am I being treated like a criminal? These handcuffs are completely unnecessary." Jack pretended to seriously think before responding.

"Let's see: You were found at the scene of unexplained rift activity," Jack put up one finger, "in the company of a trigger happy alien-." He put up a second finger as he was cut off by the prisoner's excuses.

"I wasn't exactly 'in his company'. He was shooting at me." In Jack's experience people don't shoot at other people without cause. True sometimes the cause wasn't very good, but in this case Jack wasn't willing to concede the benefit of the doubt.

"For reasons totally unknown to you I'm sure. You impersonated a Torchwood officer-" In the history of Torchwood Jack couldn't remember anyone making it in so easily without outside help. More evidence that they needed to beef up security.

"It was a life or death situation. I was being pursued by an inter-galactic thug, Gwen had a technologically advanced escape vehicle. I didn't stand a chance." Jack could remember using those exact words to describe his first encounter with Rose. It was eerie to hear them coming from someone else's throat.

"And you admittedly entered our base with the intention of assaulting two of my staff and robbing us."

"Technically I was only going to assault Ianto. I tried to send Gwen home. Shouldn't I get some points for that?" That last sentence sounded like it was asking a different question than what the words formed. Jack had too much to accomplish to bother himself about what the question was.

"As altruistic an act as that no doubt was, you still fall under the category of threat. Ergo you will wear the handcuffs and answer my questions. If you're very good we may let you go after we've sorted out this mess you've created."

"You're giving my face wrinkles when you scowl like that. Can't Ianto or Gwen interview me? There's a good cop/bad cop routine I'd like to see. I'm thinking Gwen kind of likes it rough. The handcuffs. 'Assume the position'. Tell me Jack, am I right or am I right?" Jack wanted to choke him. Who the hell was this guy to come in and insinuate things about Gwen-Whoa when had Jack become such a puritan? He said more explicit things twenty times a week to complete strangers. He thought things like that specifically about Gwen fifty times a day. So where had the rage come from? More importantly, how had his younger self known it would be his trigger? It was good strategy to get you interrogator off balance from the beginning of the session. If you do it well enough you can learn more about them than they learn about you.

"I know what you're doing."

"Of course you do. You are me after all. That doesn't mean it's not working." The smug little bastard thought he was playing Jack. He did a mental check list for facial ticks, changes in breathing patterns, voice pitch and sweat. All regular. The prisoner had nothing.

"It is not working. And for the record, you are NOT me." Jack had over a century of experience and growth on this man. He'd earned his new persona the hard way. There was no way he would classify himself as the equal of this arrogant time traveler.

"If you really believe that, why don't you slam my head into this table like you're itching to." Apparently he was a perceptive, arrogant time traveler.

"I'm not itching to. Like I said before, you're not getting to me."

"Please. You may think of yourself as some kind of big mystery. You may think that if you can hide yourself from Gwen and Ianto, you can hide from everyone. Well guess what, you can't hide from me." Empty words. The kid had no idea who he was talking to.

"I could tell you things, show you things about your future you would not believe." Jack was tempted to take out his gun and shot himself in the head, just to see his younger self's reaction. Would he be pleased or horrified to know immortality was in his future? Jack decided against revealing his deathless fate. It might be a good secret to have on hold in case of emergency.

"I don't doubt it. I would never have believed, for instance, that I would I forget everything I've learned about controlling body language. You have the most obvious tell I've ever seen in my life." He had to be bluffing. Jack had run through the list. He was a stone slate. Still it didn't sound like a bluff.

"Oh really. And what is that?"

"Looking for pointers Jack? I'll tell you what, I'll answer all your questions, truthfully, if you and your team promise to answers some of mine. I apparently won't remember this so it shouldn't affect the future in any way." What he said was true enough. Gwen and Ianto were monitoring the interview with the lie-detecting equipment, but it would save time if they got the truth in their first round of questions.

"I'll give you answers to whatever you want to know. You can ask Ianto and Gwen whatever you like but whether they answer is up to them. Agreed?" That sounded fair and it won't violate Gwen and Ianto's privacy. The other man considered a moment, then nodded once.

"Agreed. So the answer to your first question is: You cross your arms when you're trying not to give anything away. You did it when Gwen asked about the Reapers and when I asked about Gwen." Jack glanced down and sure enough he was right. Jack hid his embarrassment with a polite smile of acknowledgement.

"Noted. What is your current occupation?"

"I am a loyal operative of the Time Agency, Registration number 643783052." That information was accurate as Jack remembered it. So far so good.

"Current alias?"

"Max Rider, smuggler working within the Lyrax system, temporarily contracted by arms dealer Ritvik. He's the piece of work who followed me here through the rift hole." Jack didn't remember the assignment. He remembered each and everyone of his 167 successful missions and 11 failures, but he had no memory of this one. The ridiculousness of the name alone would have stood out in his mind.

"I'm sorry, "Max Rider"? Seriously?" 'Max' didn't look remotely abashed.

"It suits me just fine, even if you've become some kind of prude. And you're one to talk 'Captain Jack Harkness'. When did we decide we deserved a military title?" First a prude and then an insult to his name. 'Max' had better watch himself if he didn't want to be hit, consequences of a time paradox or not.

"Show some respect, I've had this name for over a century."

"You're kidding right?" Jack knew he shouldn't be hinting at his age, but he got a perverse delight out of watching Max squirm.

"What's the matter? My tells not giving me away anymore? Save your questions for later. It's still my turn. What was your assignment?"

"My partner and I were ordered in to recover some stolen highly classified data. Advanced technical plans that shouldn't be in the hands someone like Ritvik. So we infiltrate his court, I say court because he has this whole warrior-king complex, I hack his system, find the plans, find the prototype, and just as I'm about to split, I get busted. Being the dashing hero I am, I was able to escape, grab the prototype and leap through a hole in the rift. I guess Ritvik followed me." Gwen didn't call in over the intercom, which means Max had spoken the truth. Still it didn't quite sound right.

"So you just expect me to believe there happened to be a passing tear in the fabric of time and space right when you needed a quick exit?"

"Ritvik's headquarters is stationed on a planet were the dimensional thread in thin and rips appear spontaneously, at a moment's notice. I got lucky. I usually do." That was true. Even before he was immortal Jack used to joke about having nine lives.

"Why would he build there if the environment was so volatile?"

"Ritvik isn't exactly Mr. Stable himself. The power of the rift storms turns him on. He thinks he can master them." If Max was lying Jack couldn't tell and neither apparently could the machine.

"So why did he come after you? Seems like a big risk, jumping through a rift with no way to get back?"

"I told you, he's crazy. Also he wants the prototype." The prototype. Jack figured that had to be the thing Gwen found in Max's pocket when she scanned him. Gwen had shown him before Jack had entered the interrogation room. Size wise it wasn't very impressive, but with alien technology that meant very little.

"Yeah, Gwen showed it to me. Got to say it didn't look like much. Is there any other reason Ritvik would want to hunt you down so badly?" Even a doomsday weapon shouldn't be enough tempt a sentient creature through a rift in time and space. Max had, but he had been facing death already.

"Well, he also thinks I slept with his wife." There it was. Revenge was a much likelier motive for the act of impetuousness.

"And he thinks this because…" As if Jack needed to ask.

"I did sleep with his wife. It was for the good of the mission. I needed Ritvik's password. Although I must say it was hardly a hardship. She had the most beautiful scarlet feathers-" Jack's sexual diet had because a lot more traditional since he settled on Earth. It was a long time since he'd come across an alien he'd bagged in any other sense of the word than 'caught'. Strangely he didn't miss it that much. His urges were becoming much more specific then they'd ever been. Unfortunately they generally focused on the one person he couldn't have.

"I get the picture. What happened to your partner?"

"I don't know. We got separated. Knowing Jocelyn, she'll be just fine. She knows how to look after herself." Jocelyn? Again it rang no bells.

"How long have you two been partnered?"

"About two years now." Two years? One mission is maybe bad memory or a head injury. Two years of missing time, that was deliberate. Also it told Jack exactly where Max was in his timeline. Max was nearing the fateful day Jack had woken up to find two years of his memories gone. It was the event that lead him to quit the Time Agency, become a con man, and eventually find the Doctor. Talk about a crucial turning point. Damn.


	13. Chapter 13

"So what do you think

"So what do you think?" Jack looked up from his computer monitor. Gwen had here arms crossed over her chest and was staring at him intently.

"About what?"

"Come on Jack, you know what I mean. Is he you?" There was the question Jack had been asking himself. Undoubtedly Jack had been Max, but was he still? Despite everything he told himself was Jack still Max underneath all the extra mileage?

"I thought the retinal scan already confirmed that for us." Gwen unclenched her arm and shrugged her shoulders. A piece of hair fluttered across her eyes and she impatiently brushed it away. She was so beautiful. And, Jack had to remind himself, someone else's wife.

"With this place it's better not to take anything for granted. I still can't believe I led him right through the front door." Jack assembled his face into a stern mask.

"And in that outfit too. Not exactly up to Torchwood's dress code." Gwen punched him lightly in the arm for his teasing. Jack didn't mind. It felt good, familiar.

"Hey the last time I saw you, you were covered in rubbish. I thought maybe you'd sent your clothes out to the dry-cleaners. Speaking of which, what happened here?" Gwen reached out and gently touched the skin exposed through the hole in Jack's shirt and coat. Jack's blood started pumping twice as fast as it had a second before. He felt the tips of her fingers burning a path as they traced the circumference of his former wound. Heat spread throughout his entire body and he knew with absolute certainty if Gwen looked up at him at this moment the two years of self-denial would end abruptly. How was Jack supposed to think when Gwen was touching him like this? How was he supposed to care about what was right, about what was ethical? Max wouldn't have hesitated for a second.

That thought was jarring enough to break through Jack's haze of desire. He wasn't Max. He wouldn't ruin Gwen's marriage, her happiness, for the sake of his own pleasure. He turned back to face the screen, putting his chest just beyond Gwen's reach. The spot felt so cold in the absence of her touch.

"Ritvik's handwork. My guess is he thought I was Max. Good thing too. If he'd shot the real Max, we'd both be dead. And then the Reapers would come for the rest of the planet." Jack wondered if the avian criminal would care if knew the potential consequences of his actions. Considering what the arms-dealer had risked to follow Max, Jack tended to doubt it.

"So Max can die?" Gwen sounded curious. Jack had never gone into detail about how he'd come to be in his particular state of existence. It was partly because the memory was so painful and partly because before he hadn't known what exactly had happened. His latest encounter with the Doctor had filled in the blanks. Knowing took away some of Jack's bitterness at the memory. It had hurt when the Doctor sent Rose away and not him. Jack had been glad Rose was safe and he had been ready to die for the Doctor and what he believed in, but the Doctor's obvious preference had been a blow. It was made all the worse when he woke up and found himself alone. Everyone else on Satellite Five dead. No Daleks. No Tardis. No Doctor.

"Yes. The thing that makes him immortal won't happen for another three years, give or take." Learning how Rose had come back and saved him made it easier somehow. At least they both hadn't abandoned him. Jack had even come to forgive the Doctor. It had taken a year of torture for him to do it, but he had. The Doctor was a Timelord and Jack would be the first to admit the unnaturalness of his existence. As for not sending him away in the first place, well Jack had Gwen now. He understood desperately wanting to send the woman you love some place safe where no one can hurt her. It was a shame Jack couldn't think of any completely peacefully planets off the top of his head.

"Are you going to tell him?" The knowledge wasn't a burden Jack would wish upon anyone. Still he did have a promise to respect.

"Not unless he asks. I assume you overheard our deal?" She must have if she was monitoring the interrogation like she was supposed to. Gwen was very good at her job.

"Yes. Ianto and I both thank you for leaving us out of it." Jack wondered if they were grateful enough to surrender their curiosity.

"I don't suppose you'd be willing to express that thanks by giving me your word you won't eavesdrop." Gwen's smile shifted from grateful to mischievous. He was actually seeing teeth for the first time in over a month.

"If I said I was, would you believe me?" How he'd missed seeing her eyes sparkle like this. How he'd missed their easy banter.

"No." The grin grew wider. What had he been thinking hiding away for these past weeks? These were the things that made it all bearable. Worth it even.

"So little trust. It's a bit sad really." Jack loved her so much it hurt.

"I prefer to think of it as knowing my team very well. Bring him to my office and then go help Ianto located Ritvik. The sooner we get that bird caged the sooner we send Max back to where he belongs. At risk of sounding cliché, this place ain't big enough for the two of us." Better he fulfilled his end of the bargain now, in the privacy of the one room with no cameras. This way Max wouldn't have any excuse to linger, once the situation had been dealt with. Jack couldn't shake the feeling Max was going to be trouble for Torchwood. It could be nerves or it could be his mind remembering.

"Gwen?" She paused halfway down the stairs to the interrogation room and faced him.

"Yes Jack?"

"Don't trust him. Everything I ever told about John, you keep in mind when you're dealing with Max." After all Jack had taught the man most of what he knew.

"But he's you, Jack. Why would you tell me not to trust you?" It was ironic how sincere she sounded. Jack supposed Gwen had forgotten all the times she herself had questioned his motives. Gwen always seemed to know when the shadows of Jack's past were nearing too close to the surface. No, Gwen hadn't forgotten his moments of darkness. She simply placed her unwavering trust in him in spite of them. What had he done to deserve that kind of loyalty? Jack didn't know and the only thing he could do was try and earn it.

"Let's just say I wasn't always as open and uncomplicated as I am now. Leave it at that."


	14. Chapter 14

"You could try asking

"You could try asking." Max turned to face Gwen with an inviting smile. She had been brisk when she'd retrieved Max from the interrogation room and hadn't said a word to him since. Max wasn't a fan of this distant professionalism. How was he supposed to learn anything about Gwen while being forced to silently walk two feet in front of her? Max knew she wanted to talk to him. He could feel her eyes drilling into the back of his skull. That was why he'd issued his challenge.

"Try asking what?" Gwen's tone was indifferent, but Max noticed she hadn't demanded they keep walking.

"Whatever it is you want to know about Jack. He doesn't seem to have told you much about his past. You must be curious." She was curious, he could see it in her remarkable green eyes. Very curious. Whatever Jack's reasons for concealing his history, Max didn't care. Self-knowledge was the only bargaining chip Max had at this point and he would be damned if he wouldn't try to use it.

"And you would be willing to share his secrets with me?" Gwen sounded very skeptical. Intriguing that despite their obviously close bond, Jack abstained from confiding in Gwen. Max had to wonder what Jack's obsession with mystery was. Time agents tended to be tight-lipped as a rule but it was clear Jack not longer worked for the Agency. Perhaps old habits just died hard.

"They're my secrets too and I have the right to share them with whoever I want. All I'd ask in return is a few answers of my own. Come on, no harm in exchanging a little information. The boss would never have to know." Max turned on his charm to full wattage. Standing this close to her, in an empty stairwell, with Max's fifty-first century pheromones, Gwen should be putty in his hands. This being the case, Max wondered why it was him that was unable to stop himself from leaning in and her that had the strength to linger just out of the reach of his lips.

"Jack was right about you." Jack again. That must be why Gwen could so ably resist his charms. Max tried to tell himself it was irrational to be jealous of his future self. It didn't help. Jealous he most certainly was.

"What, that I'm brilliant, dashing, charismatic and charming? He really shouldn't flatter himself like that. It makes him seem vain." Hopefully the resentment hadn't been too obvious an undercurrent in his humor.

"No, that you can't be trusted." Despite her words Gwen was smiling at him. It had only been a few hours since he'd last seen her grin, but Max found that he'd missed it. He felt lighter somehow, the way he did after completing an important mission. It was the feeling of having fulfilled his function. It this case it was just by making Gwen happy.

"He said that? Really? Don't you think that's an unusual thing for a man to say about himself? How are you supposed to trust a statement made by a man you've been told not to trust? It sounds a little ridiculous, don't you think? I think it's a much better idea to just ignore everything Jack says." Gwen's struggle to keep herself from laughing ended on Max's last line. Max felt pleased with himself, if a little unsure what caused the final snap.

"What's funny?"

"You just did it yourself. How are you supposed to listen to a man who has told you to ignore everything he says?" Max just stared at Gwen's shaking form for a moment. She was right. He had made the same paradoxical error as Jack. He couldn't help joining Gwen in her laughter.

"I did do it, didn't I? Maybe Jack and I have more in common than he thinks." Maybe even the way they felt about Gwen. That thought both thrilled and scared the hell out of him.

"Maybe." Their laughter had died down and Gwen was looking at Max in a particular way. He could guess she was thinking about kissing him and all the complications involved with that. He was Jack, but he wasn't Jack. Max was more than willing to accept the duties his future self, for some inane reason, had chosen not to fulfill. He wondered how it would feel though, knowing he was only an understudy, a stand-in for the man she really wanted. Gwen didn't give Max the chance to find out. She motioned for him to face front once more. "Let's go. Jack's waiting. "


	15. Chapter 15

When Max reached the base's main floor he was surprised to see another man waiting with his arms crossed by the computers

When Max reached the base's main floor he was surprised to see another man waiting with his arms crossed by the computers. The newcomer was a striking contrast to the slim and smartly-dressed Ianto. He was overweight, wearing old jeans and a baggy tee-shirt. Max would have called his face good-natured if it hadn't been screwed up in a fury about something. The man caught sight of Max and his face got even redder than before.

"You bastard! What was so bloody important you needed to be calling my wife in at 3 o'clock in the morning!" Wife? The man had to be seriously confused. Someone who worked here married to that-

"Rhys, what the hell are you doing here?" Gwen? And this guy? Not possible.

"Wait, you're, married? To him? Really?" Gwen opened her mouth to respond but the stranger beat her to the punch.

"You damn well know she is Jack! You were at the wedding! Remember, the ceremony you ruined by getting my fiancé pregnant with an alien baby!" That must have been a hell of a shindig. "And ever since then it's got nothing but worse. You have her working all the time and when she's at home it's nothing but "Jack's gotten so distant. I'm so worried about him. He leaves and wouldn't tell us where he's going. No I HAVE to go in Rhys, Jack NEEDS me!" So what is it Jack? Are you fucking my wife? Or have you stopped and that's why she's in such a state? Well Jack? Do you have something to say to me?" Not that attractive, jealous and rude. Max was ready to beat the crap out of this guy on principle.

"I'm wondering why the hell Gwen ever married you." That did it. This idiot was going to try a hit him. Anything that Max did after that was purely self-defense, even if he did enjoy it.

"Hey Rhys!" The moron stopped in mid-swing and turned to look at Jack, who was coming down the stairs. He did a double take between the two identical men and backed away from both of them.

"Oh my God, there's two of them! Gwen is one of these a shape shifter?!" Interesting that this guy would know about shape shifters. He seemed like the prototype of an average ignorant civilian. Max supposed living with a member of Torchwood would have exposed him to some of what the universe had to offer.

"It would serve you right if one was. What the hell right do you have barging in here like this with your mad accusations?" Gwen wasn't putting up with his bullshit. That was good. Although calling the idiot's accusations "mad" was probably a stretch. Even if they weren't true, Max had too much experience with this kind of thing to believe a relationship between Jack and Gwen had never crossed their minds. Max would be willing to bet they thought about it a hundred times a day. Gwen's husband may have been a lot of things but apparently blind was not one of them.

"I'm your husband, that's the right I have. If neither of these things are shape shifters, what the hell are they? Which is Jack?" This type of conversation was becoming extremely wearisome to Max. He wondered if Jack felt the same.

"Technically we both are. Don't sweat it tubby, it's a crossed-timelines kind of thing. Way over your head. If you want the man who's met you before tonight, talk to the man in the military coat." 'Tubby' was low, Max would admit, but the guy deserved to be called worse. The asshole was lucky enough to be married to Gwen and he still found things to complain about.

"Two Jacks? That's two Jacks too many." Oh the moron fancied himself a wit.

"That's not a very polite way to talk to someone in their own house, Now then, I'm not sure I heard everything perfectly through the walls of my office, so if I make any mistakes please let me know. It sounded liked you were accusing me of sabotaging your marriage. To set the record perfectly straight, I swear on Gwen's life that she and I have never engaged in sexual intercourse. If you find Gwen's concern for my well-being troubling, try and remind yourself that Gwen is concerned for strangers she meets on the street. It is the compassionate person she is, not evidence of adultery. As for any other problems that have arisen because of Gwen's work, like you said before, we were there at the wedding. You married her knowing about Torchwood. You knew the sacrifices you would make. If you can't live with them, don't blame Gwen and don't blame me." Max was relieved to see his future self hadn't completely lost his balls. The idiot looked like he was suffering from bad food poisoning. Finally he turned to face Gwen.

"He's right. I can't. I can't live like this anymore. Gwen, I'm going home to pack my things. If you haven't quit this nightmare of a place by 10 tonight, I'm moving out. I'm sorry. I love you, but I just can't."


	16. Chapter 16

It had finally come

It had finally come. Jack had foreseen this moment the day Gwen had refused to retcon Rhys. Jack had known that at some point the man would demand full possession of Gwen. What he hadn't known, what he was afraid to know, was what Gwen's decision would be. Watching her now as she stared at the cog door that had closed after her husband, he still didn't know.

"Gwen-" She put up a hand to cut him off.

"Not now Jack." Her voice was tight and her eyes glittering under the artificial lights of the Hub. "I need to get some air." The second the door slid shut again, Jack whirled on Ianto.

"Why the hell did you let him in here?!"

"He showed up and starting banging on the front door. What would you have liked me to have done?" Ianto's calm demeanor only fueled Jack's fury.

"Of the top of my head you could have told him his wife was fine and that she'd talk to him when she got home! I'd like to know what Torchwood protocol says it's all right to let a civilian into the base. " Intellectually Jack know he had no right to yell at Ianto like this. He wasn't feeling intellectual right now, he was feeling scared and helpless. There was a good chance Gwen would leave him, that today would be the last day he saw her eyes, heard her smile, felt her touch. She had chosen Rhys over him before.

"I'm sorry sir. I forgot you're the only one allowed to break the rules."

"Excuse me?" That had sounded suspiciously like criticism and from Ianto that was practically unprecedented.

"Gwen, Jack. When it comes to Gwen, you have always broken the rules, from the first day you met her. You do know why don't you? Owen and Tosh saw it. I saw it. Even when I didn't too."

"Ianto-"

"I'm fine Jack. I've had more than a month to think about and I really am fine. I love you Jack and God knows I'll miss the sex, but I need something from a partner I can't get from you. I'm not leaving Torchwood and I will always here as your friend. And it was as your friend I let Rhys into Hub. I am truly sorry if this is hard on you and even more so on Gwen, but it was time. Past time."

"I-I- I'll be in my office." Jack needed space, he needed quiet, he needed to think. Unfortunately Max had no intention of giving him any of the above.

"So that was interesting. Are most days at the office like this for you? I got to say the drama's pretty intense."

"I not really in the mood right now for your Q & A. Why don't you go have Ianto teach you how to make coffee?"

"Tempting but I think he'd rather spend by himself right now. Besides you promised me a little heart to heart time, remember? It'll be fun. Just like talking to yourself." Despite Max's light-hearted tone, Jack could tell he was serious about getting his answers. With Gwen taking a break and Ianto manning the computers there wasn't much Jack could do but cave to his requests.

"Fine, ask whatever the hell you want. The sooner this is over the sooner you can get gone."

"Generously put. What to ask first? I'll start with something small. When I was pretending to be you I tipped Gwen off by saying I had taken a nap. After she pulled a gun on me she told me you didn't sleep. Is that true?" So that's how Gwen had been alerted to the imposter. A sharp catch for her to make in the wee hours of the morning.

"Yes."

"How? Why?" Jack needed to be careful here. The sleeplessness was somehow tied to the immortality. Vagueness was probably the best course here.

"Ï don't know. My guess is it's a side effect of something the happened to me a while back. I was …out of it for a while and a girl, Rose, made me better, but after that I couldn't sleep anymore." It was the truth and yet did not reveal Jack's secret. He congratulated himself on his well-formed response.

"OK. During the interrogation you said you said you'd had the name "Captain Jack Harkness" for over a century. How is that possible when you only look a few years older than me? Major plastic surgery?" So much for patting his own back. Jack had always know his ego would one day get him into trouble. If he hadn't been so damn proud of his title he wouldn't be in this position.

"No. I shouldn't have said anything, but since I did, I don't have any choice but to tell you. That is, if you really want to know. Before you say you do, think long and hard, because the answer will blow your mind." Warning Max was all Jack could do but he doubted it would be enough.

"I've never been averse to having any part of me blown." Ianto was right, Max really was worse than Jack. Well Jack's next trick should knock some of the self-assuredness out of him.

"Just remember, I did try to warn you." Jack drew his gun place it to his temple and fired in one smooth movement.


	17. Chapter 17

""NOOOOOOO

Too fast. It had happened too fast for Max to stop him. Jack had shot himself. Jack was DEAD. Dead. Dead. Max's couldn't comprehend it. Jack had been fine. And then…all the blood and brain matter on the floor of the office. Why? What had been so horrible that Jack would do this rather than tell him.

"What happened? I heard the gun go off-Oh I see." Ianto seemed very calm about find his ex-lover dead on the floor. Max figured the coffee boy's shock must be even worse than his own.

"I'd didn't have time to stop him. Why would he…how could he…" Max found he was incapable of finishing his sentences. Ianto didn't suffer from the same affliction.

"I wish he hadn't done this in here. Those blood stains are a nightmare to get out of the carpet." Max couldn't believe what he was hearing he grabbed Ianto by the front of his suit and shook him.

"Blood stains?! Your boss is dead and you're worried about blood stains?!" Ianto looked confused for a moment, then comprehension dawned.

"He didn't tell you? Before he shot himself he didn't tell you? I guess it's something you need to see to believe. Still doing it without warning you first…" Ianto polite professionalism was really starting to eat at Max. He felt like he was attending his own funeral and found all the mourners checking their watches.

"Told me what?! What could he possibly have said to me that would have made this alright?" Nothing, nothing could have changed how it felt to watch Jack just surrender his life, their life without so much as a thought, especially when they had so much to live for. Who would tell Gwen?

"I probably could have said something to the effect of "I can't die" but let's face it, would you really have believed me?" Max thought he had finally suffered from a nervous breakdown. He turned slowly and saw Jack getting up from the pool of his own blood. Max didn't remember consciously letting go of Ianto, but he was vaguely aware of his leaving the room.

"Good to have you back sir. Now if you'll excuse me I have an alien threat I'm supposed to be locating."

Max couldn't believe what his eyes were telling him. Jack had been dead. Max knew enough about faking bullet wounds to know the difference between good acting and actual death. Yet Jack stood before him with no more than a little dried blood on his forehead showing any evidence of what had occurred.

"You look a little green. I think you need to sit down." Jack rolled his chair over Max and helped him into it.

"You were dead."

"Yes I was."

"And now you're not."

"No." All of Max's questions could be easily summed up into a single word.

"How?"

"Remember what I said before about being 'out of it' for a while and having a girl make me better? Well I said 'out of it' 'dead' might have been the more accurate term. I traveled for a while with these two people, Rose and the Doctor in a time machine. They were great and we had a lot of good times together, but trouble kind of followed them wherever they went. Eventually we all got into this really tight spot and I died. That would have been it for me, but Rose did this crazy thing, she opened up the heart of the time machine and absorbed the power of the time vortex. She used it to save billions of people and bring me back to life. The thing was she accidentally brought me back forever."

"Forever. Funny I'd always assumed I'd die young."

"You do, in a manner of speaking."

"So what you don't age at all. I'm going to look like that until the universe collapses?"

"I age. Forty years ago I found a grey hair on my pillow. I just age very, very slowly." Forty years ago. It was unreal and yet Max didn't doubt for a second Jack was telling the truth.

"So how old are you now?"

"I don't know exactly. I think somewhere between 140 and 150." It was a little shocking, but given Jack's immortality it cold have been much worse.

"Wow. I got to say, considering, we look pretty good. When I think about it, it really explains a lot." Max had wondered why Jack seemed so similar and yet so different.

"Like what?"

"Like how I became such a moron. That's just not the kind of thing that happens over night." The fact that it would take a century for Max to become as stupid as Jack made Max feel a little better. Not much considering the end result would be the same, but a little.

"Excuse me?!" Max couldn't see what right Jack had to get upset. Max was stating an objective fact after all.

"I'm talking about Gwen, Jack."

"I just told you that you are never going to die, that you can't be killed, and you want to talk about Gwen?" Jack seemed to be questioned Max's priorities. Ironic that was exactly what Max planned to do to Jack.

"The immortality thing…that's going to take me a little while to get my head around. Right now I want to focus on why you are so determined to make yourself unhappy."

"I'm sorry, I'm having a hard time following you." Max sincerely doubted that, but if Jack wanted to play dumb Max would play right along.

"Really? Maybe some visuals will help jog your memory." Max grabbed the box he'd left open on Jack's desk. He pulled out the picture of Jack and Gwen dancing and slapped it on table. "Exhibit A." Jack glanced down at the picture, and back at Max, seemingly indifferent. He didn't even cross his arms over his chest. Max knew he shouldn't have given him that tip.

"So what?" Jack was good, Max would give him that.

"So what? Let me tell you what I saw when I first found this picture in your desk. Two people deeply in love with each other. Imagine my confusion when Gwen told me that you would never tell her you loved her." What was Jack's problem. Max struggled with this even more than the knowledge of his immortality. Jack seemed to be having inner conflicts of his own. He pointed down at the photo while keeping his eyes firmly on Max.

"You may see two people in love, but you know what I see? I see a man dancing with a woman who has just been married to somebody else." Gwen married to Rhys. That must have been painful for Jack. Still Max wouldn't pity him. Jack had just let it all happen. It was his fault.

"Why? Why did she marry someone else?!"

"How would I know? You should ask Gwen." Yeah and right now, the day her husband had threatened to leave her, would be the best day to do that.

"Did you say anything? Did you even try and stop her?" That's what it all came down to. As far as Max could tell Jack had given up the thing he wanted most in the world without a fight. More importantly he seemed to be on the verge of doing it again.

"It was complicated." Complicated? What kind of bullshit answer was that?

"No I don't really think it was. 'I object' isn't that difficult to say."

"She wanted to marry him. It wasn't my place to stop her."

"Your place? When the hell did you start caring about 'your place'?"

"She needs him. She needs the normalcy to keep her sane. He can give her things I can't."

"Like what?"

"He can give her a family. He can grow old with her. He can die with her. He can die for her. I can't." When had Jack turned to martyrdom? He was sacrificing himself for Gwen's sake. Or at least that's what he'd convinced himself he was doing. Max wasn't at all certain what Jack was doing was best for Gwen. In fact from what he'd seen it might be the worst thing in the world for her.

"You gave her the choice, right? You told her all this before the wedding?" Jack silence was all the answer Max needed. "You stupid bastard, how could you?!" Jack's cool finally gave way. He was inches from Max's face, his cool blue eyes glinting dangerously.

"Since when do you care?! You don't believe in long-term anything. Why should this matter to you?!"

"Because you are me and I can see what it does to you. The way you look at her Jack…The way she looks at you…I want that. I want to know that's waiting for me." Jack opened his mouth to respond but was cut off by a knock at the door. Gwen walked in eyeing both men and no doubt wondering what she's interrupted. Max and Jack simultaneously took a step away from each other.

"Jack, I think we've found him."


	18. Chapter 18

"We've gotten reading of an alternative energy discharge from this area here

"We've gotten a reading of a foreign energy discharge in this area here." Ianto pointed at the lower left hand corner of the screen. Jack was relieved to see it wasn't a densely populated area. Less civilians meant less potential casualties and/or witnesses. "It's some kind of warehouse. Gwen's already programmed the coordinates into the GPS. We are ready to go when you are, sir." Ianto and Gwen had their guns in hand and their game faces on. They scared Jack more than the prospect of facing a hundred armed bird men.

"Neither of you are coming with me." Jack wouldn't allow it, not on a mission like this when they were pursuing such a deadly fugitive.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Gwen looked legitimately confused which lead Jack to believe she hadn't known about the other assignments he had completed without her and Ianto's aid.

"This Rit-tic-"

"Ritvik." Max, who had thus far been silent, apparently felt compelled to correctly name the man trying to kill him.

"Whatever the hell his name is, has a serious arsenal that I have no intention of letting either of you two near." He didn't even consider bringing Max. That was one wild card he didn't need complicating the scenario.

"Since when do you get to decide which missions are too dangerous for us?" As Jack had predicted Gwen wasn't going to let this go without a fight.

"Since I lost half my team." That gave him some rights, damn it. It wasn't the same for Ianto and Gwen. They hadn't recruited Tosh and Owen. It hadn't been their job to protect them. It had been Jack's and he had failed.

"It's a choice we all made Jack. We knew the risks and choose to fight anyway because we believed in this place. Because we believed in you. I still do." Gwen's words forcefully reminded Jack of how he'd felt about the Doctor. Funny, Jack had never considered the burden of being the object of all that faith. It was a lot. Maybe too much for him to carry.

"Nice words, but I'm not ready to write them on your tombstone just yet." Jack calculated the odds of him being able to overpower both Gwen and Ianto while they were armed. They weren't good.

"Damn it Jack, you are not going out there alone!" Gwen was worried about him. After all this time, didn't she realize she didn't need to be? He wished he could say the same about his being concerned for her.

"Gwen, I can't think with you there! I can't shoot! I can't protect this world if I have to worry about you. Both of you. If you want to do what's best for this planet, what's best for me, then stay here." It was the best argument he had, the only one that might work with his strong brave Gwen. Where 'save yourself' always fell on deaf ears, 'save others' had a chance of getting through. Gwen stared at Jack for a moment, considering what she'd heard and finally arriving at a decision.

"We will go with you, but we will wait in the car. We will wire you with a camera and watch from a safe distance away. As long as you have the situation under control, we will not come in after you. Deal?" Gwen's solution was far from ideal, but Jack had thrown everything he'd had at her and this was the best offer he was likely to get.

"Fine. The rest of the equipment is in the car. Let's go."

"Excuse me, don't I get a gun." Max. Jack had almost forgotten about him.

"No. You won't be coming. Ianto take him down to the vaults. No telling what trouble he might get himself into left in the Hub by himself." Jack no longer doubted Max's identity, but that didn't mean he trusted him.

"Ritvik is after me, so tell me why I'm not allowed to come?" Because there's no way in hell I'd put the lives of my team in your hands.

"If Ritvik kills you timelines will be upset and Reapers will come and destroy us all. You're staying here where it's safe."

"What if I'm supposed to come with you? You don't remember. You don't know." Max was really pushing this. A shame they couldn't have done this the easy way.

"Too much argument." Jack pulled a gun from inside his coat and shot Max in the chest.


	19. Chapter 19

"So I have your word

"So I have your word? You both are going to stay here?" Jack looked back and forth between his employees. Neither of them had spoken to him since they'd left the Hub. He was under no illusions as to why. Finally Gwen turned to answer him.

"Are you sure you want to take our word for it? Wouldn't you prefer to, I don't know, shoot us with a tranquillizer gun?!" Jack would be lying if he said the thought hadn't crossed his mind. Jack hadn't done it, tempting as it had been, mostly because he knew first hand how Gwen reacted to being drugged. He found her indignation on Max's behalf simultaneously endearing and aggravating.

"What? I gave him one little sedative. Big deal. He was holding up the mission."

"One little sedative? Whatever you shot him with made him collapse before he could even get the dart out. He could have a concussion." Max's head had hit the cement floor a bit harder than Jack had anticipated. It didn't really matter. Jack knew from experience that Max had withstood much more punishment without serious side effects.

"He's been through worse trust me. No harm done."

"Easy for you to say, sir. You weren't the one who had to carry him all the way down to the cells." Ianto also disapproved. His displeasure was more subtle than Gwen's, but still detectable. Had they both gotten crushes on the Hub's latest guest? One more reason to get Max out of here. Jack wasn't sure he liked the competition.

"I would have helped you if I could, but paradoxes etc...Anyway you can both rest now while I go and contain the alien threat." Gwen shook her head and activated the display screen. She handed Ianto and Jack identical earpieces to the one she was wearing. They all adjusted the settings to channel three.

"Fine. The camera feed is looking good. Coms are a go. Be safe." Gwen had allowed herself to briefly glance up at Jack on her last words. He could see the unease in her eyes. Jack gave her his cheekiest grin in the hope of relieving her fear.

"Aren't I always?" He winked at her and headed off out of the wooded area where they had parked the SUV. No point in leaving Gwen and Ianto in the car if Ritvik knew they were out there. Cautiously he approached the warehouse and ease opened a door whose lock had already been blasted off. With his pistol in one hand and his alien artifact detector in the other, Jack moved through the rooms with stealth and speed. Finally he came upon the room that registered several blips on his hand held device. Jack burst in with his gun leading the way.

His first reaction was that the room was too quiet for another living creature to be within it. That was when Jack saw the mound of yellow feathers over in the far corner. He wondered if Ritvik was sleeping. That would make apprehending him a lot simpler for Jack. Jack approached the figure with great caution. He didn't trust it when the universe seemed to be working in his favor. He was finally close enough to see the face through the feathers. The eyes were open. Ritvik wasn't sleeping, he was dead.

Suddenly Jack heard a noise at his feet. He looked down just in time to see an exploding blue light. The blast temporary blinded him and knocked him on his back. When Jack tried to recover to his feet he found he couldn't move at all. He was paralyzed.

"Jack? Jack what happened? Are you alright?" Jack tried to respond to Gwen's inquiries but his lips wouldn't move. He then heard another noise, a sound he hadn't heard since Captain John's first visit. The sound of an activated wrist strap. Max? He'd said his wrist strap was low on energy. Had he been lying? A face appeared over Jack's prone body. It wasn't Max's.

"Hello Max. Bet you're surprised to see me here. Well maybe not. You are such a clever boy, not just the pretty face you pretend to be. Although maybe if you'd been really clever you would have just stuck to the assignment none of this would have happened. Where is it Max?" The woman standing over Jack was devastatingly beautiful. She wore her long golden hair in an elaborate braid the reached down to her butt. Her eyes were violet and glowed brilliantly. Jack was certain he had never seen her before.

"Jack, why aren't you responding? Who the hell is that?" Gwen's questions went unanswered by Jack and unheard by the woman.

"That's right, you can't talk. Don't worry it was just a flash bomb. You'll be able to move in fifteen minutes or so. I just wanted our reunion to be as special as it should be, you know without the clichéd exchange of threats and gunfire. The flash bomb was the best Ritvik had on him. I hope you don't mind too much. Speaking of borrowed technology, where did you get this?"

"Jack if you can hear me we're at-" The woman pulled Jack's com out of his ear while Gwen was mid-sentence and put it into her own. Her eyes widened marginally before she recovered into her cool demeanor.

"Company's coming. Max, you naughty man. You didn't tell me you invited guests to our little party. I think I'll wait to greet them later when I've had more time to prepare." The woman circled her arms around Jack and pushed a button on her wrist strap. They disappeared in a flash of light just as Gwen and Ianto burst through the door.


	20. Chapter 20

"Wake up you lying pissing useless sack of shit

"Wake up you lying pissing useless sack of shit!" Gwen's words hammered Max back into consciousness. Her voice, which he'd formerly found quite pleasant and attractive, was harsh and pitchy. It wasn't exactly helping the state of his head. Funny, Max didn't remember having anything to drink, but why else would he have this hangover. He didn't remember having done anything worth being screamed at for either. Max opened his eyes and saw a livid Gwen glaring at him through the clear cell wall. When had he been locked up again? The last thing he remembered was talking to Jack about accompanying the team on a mission. That's right, Max remembered now. Jack had shot him. It had obviously been a sleeper round, but still he was the victim here. So why was Gwen mad?

"What are you yelling at me for? Jack's the lunatic who drugged me and threw me in a cell. Where is he? I have a message for him and don't want any of it lost in translation." Max hadn't thought it possible for Gwen's face to get any redder. He was wrong.

"Where is he? WHERE IS HE? I'd tell you, BUT I DON'T KNOW!!" Max was glad he was safe in the cell. His bruises still hurt from the last time she was this enraged at him.

"What do you mean? What happened?"

"He was ambushed! Ambushed by someone waiting for you!" Max had a very bad feeling about where this conversation was going.

"Ritvik?" Gwen pressed her lips as she shook her head. When she spoke again it was with a forced calm that was by far more frightening than her yelling.

"No, not Ritvik. You told us about Ritvik. We were prepared for Ritvik. Ritvik was dead when we got there. No Jack was abducted by a blond bitch with a wrist strap. Look familiar?" Gwen held a small rectangular device for Max to see. On the screen was a woman with purple eyes. Damn. So it had be Jacquelyn who'd betrayed him. Max had hoped he'd been wrong. Sentimental but true. He had no idea what to tell Gwen, exactly how much information she could be trusted with. "Go ahead lie to me some more. I'm just looking for a reason to come in there and kick the shit out of you." Apparently she could read Max's thoughts on his face. All of her experience working with Jack must have given her some insight. It was a little inconvenient to Max just then. Still he supposed with Jack kidnapped he didn't have much choice but to come clean.

"It's Jacquelyn. My partner. And I didn't lie before." Max had been very careful about that. Lying by omission could be a tricky business, but Max was very good at it. In his line of work he had to face some of the most precise lie-detecting instruments in the universe. No doubt Torchwood had some version which he had obviously fooled. Gwen didn't seem inclined to cut Max any slack for his technical honesty.

"No you didn't lie. You just failed to mention a few minor things. Like the fact this partner of yours is yet another name on the list of people who wants you dead. Now because of you she has Jack." Max felt marginally guilty about that, but all things considered it could have been worse. It wasn't like Jacquelyn was going to be able to do any permanent damage to his immortal future self. Had Max been the one caught, his prospects would have been a lot less favorable.

"I guess it is a good thing he can't die." Max would love to see his ex-partner's face when she figured that one out. Gwen didn't share Max's levity. The look she was giving him right then looked a lot like disgust.

"You're unbelievable. Jack was right about you." So they were back to Jack warnings were they? Max can't be trusted. Max is a liar. Like anyone could be more deceptive than Jack himself.

"Yeah like Jack is such a saint."

"What did you say?!" Oh Gwen was going to take umbrage at smears to Jack's good name? All the better. Max was stirring for a fight and if this was all it would take to provoke one, so be it.

"I said Jack is more of a fraud than I ever dreamt of being. You both are. Look at you, all hot and bothered about your boss when you've got a husband packing back at home. How many hours have you got left now? Fifteen? Fourteen?" Max could practically hear Gwen grinding her teeth. Her hands were clenching and unclenching.

"Shut up." A few more words and she would explode with more fire than Vesuvius.

"Lying to tubby, lying to each other, lying to yourselves-"

"SHUT UP!!" Gwen hit the button to open the cell and came in with her fists flying blindly. Max was ready for her. He grabbed hands mid-flight, locked them at her sides and pressed her up the cell wall. His entire body was pressed up against hers, rendering her immobile.

"You want honesty Gwen? This is honesty. Jack never lets himself get this close does he? Because if he did then you'd be forced to acknowledge exactly what you are to each other. That's the difference between me and him. I am all for pressing the issue." Every part of Max was working to emphasize this philosophy. Max was having a hard getting a hold of himself. He had only been trying to make a point, but if he held Gwen like this for much longer any intellectual struggle between them would give way to a purely physical one.

"There are more important things in life than sex." Gwen's husky voice betrayed her even as she spoke the words. Max wondered if even Gwen thought she believed them.

"I didn't say sex was the only thing you two are lying to each other about. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I shouldn't be the one talking to you about this. If you want Jack back you are going to need my help. And you are going to have to trust me."


	21. Chapter 21

Max was finally done

Max was finally done. It had taken him three hours to undo the damage Jacqueline had inflicted in mere seconds. At least Max assumed it had only been seconds. The wrist strap never left Max's wrist and he would hate to think his attention had lapsed for longer than that. Even though he hadn't noticed her sabotage at the time, Max had a pretty good idea exactly what moment she'd disabled the equipment. Served him right for mixing business with pleasure. After his last partner, Max should have known better.

"Finished. Hey Ianto, where's Gwen?" Max had snapped at Gwen after the first twenty minutes of her pacing behind him, glaring at the back of his head. He'd told her he wouldn't be able to work with her in the room. She'd cursed a bit at him first, but eventually left after giving Ianto instructions to shoot Max at the first sign of trouble. Gwen may not have looked it, but she could slip into the persona of hardass commander very easily.

"I believe she went up to Jack's office. You remember the way." Max could feel Ianto's eyes on him as he ascended the staircase. They made an interesting pair, Gwen and Ianto. The first displayed her feelings for the world to see, but denied the emotions buried deepest within her heart. The second kept his feelings hidden from those closest to him, but was more than aware of his true longings and those of everyone else.

When Max entered the room Gwen was sitting in Jack's chair with her back facing the door.

"Testing out the boss' chair?" Gwen didn't turn around to face him.

"Are the repairs finished?" Gwen's voice was distant, as though her mind was somewhere far from the present. It disturbed Max that he couldn't see her face. Not knowing what she was thinking and feeling made him very uneasy.

"Yes. Now we just need to discuss a little strategy about how we want this handled. I thought we could brainstorm a little. Bounce ideas off each other. It would help if we could actually do this face to face." Max spun the chair around and found himself glared at by a pair of red eyes. He was temporarily speechless. Gwen had been crying for Jack. When a time agent's luck finally ran out few people mourned his or her passing. Any family had already said their final goodbyes before the recruits entered the academy. Part of the entry process included a removal of all memories of home. The Time Agency was for life. The memories were taken to starve off the temptation to use the power of the wrist strap for personal reasons. Once active, agents didn't have the opportunity to form attachments with anyone but their partner. Jacqueline proved even those bonds weren't necessarily that strong. Max hadn't expected that someday he would have people who cared about him. Who worried about him, indestructible as he would become. Who loved him.

"He'll be fine Gwen. He immortal remember?"

"That doesn't mean he can't be hurt. He still feels pain."

"Jack is strong. He can handle it."

"What if we can't find him? What if he never comes-" Gwen's breathing became rapid and shallow, like she wasn't getting enough air. Max immediately bend down and scooped her up in his arms. He could feel her tense as he sat down in Jack's chair, holding her close to his chest.

"I know I'm not him, but I'm close. If you shut your eyes you can pretend." After a moment Gwen relaxed in his arms. Max could feel the warm tears being absorbed by his shirt as he rocked her gently and murmured words of comfort. He was relieved to see his efforts were having an effect. Her sobs became softer and softer until at last her breathing returned to its normal pace. Still Gwen didn't try to disengage herself from Max's embrace, and he was in no hurry to move her. This experience had been a revelation to Max. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been this close to someone without sex being on the agenda. Comforting Gwen had been foreign, but he'd liked it. Max wouldn't have minded staying like this indefinitely, Jack be damned. He tried to remind himself that whatever happened to Jack would happen to him one day. It didn't help. Then he thought of Gwen and what she would suffer if Jack didn't come back. It was no good. It wasn't his time now. Max would save Jack, if only to return him Gwen. Whether or not the idiot deserved it.


	22. Chapter 22

"Max, I do wish you would cease this foolishness and tell me what I want to know

"Max, I do wish you would cease this foolishness and tell me what I want to know. It really distresses to see you like this. You know the longer you hold out the more likely it is I'll cause lasting damage to the parts of you I most cherish."

If Jack hadn't been in so much pain he would have been impressed his captor's thoroughness. She had slowly and deliberately worked over each and every pain center on his body. It was as though she was reading from a map detailing his anatomical weakness. After each area she would shoot him up with morphine. It was a classic interrogation technique, altering pain with pleasure. It kept the body from growing insensitive to the damage being inflicted. Definitely a professional. She made the Master look like a thug with a lead pipe. The woman took his chin in her glove hand and tilted his face toward her own.

"Such a handsome man." She kissed him passionately and with inner reluctance he allow her tongue to enter his mouth. Then he bit down. Hard. She was quick enough to pull away but not without first losing a little skin and blood. It wasn't much of a consolation to Jack for the hours of hell she'd put him through but it gave him a little satisfaction. At least until she gave a delighted laugh.

"What a naughty man you are! But we have no time for those kinds of games now. Now I need you to tell me, where did you hide the prototype? Do you your new friends have it? I must say you do move fast. On this planet less than 24 hours and you manage to recruit back up. Granted given the current state of things I wouldn't call them particularly competent, but still from the glimpse I caught off them they were both quite pretty. That is always your weakness isn't it Max, your eye for a pretty face? Was that why you trusted me? Poor Max. I truly did enjoy working with you these past years. It's just that Ritvik paid too well. And know that he's dead I'm sure others will pay just as much. After all, Time Agency technology is so hard to come by. Unless of course you're an actual agent. I couldn't believe my luck when we were chosen to investigate my own theft. Well officially it will be your own theft, once I report back to headquarters."

Jack felt slightly smug now that his theory had been validated. This was Max's partner, Jacqueline. If, _when_, he managed to escape he was going to find and throttle his younger self. Max had apparently managed to leave out a few details about his situation. Before he could fully run through the list of painful, but undamaging things he would do the time agent his sense flash to red alert. Someone else was here. He was the only one to feel it. Jacqueline snatched one of Ritvik's spare guns from the ground and blasted the door off the front of the barn in less than two seconds.

"Show yourself now or pretty boy gets it in the head!" Jacqueline's left hand kept her gun pointed at the newly made entrance, as her right unsheathed a knife strapped to her thigh. She sliced through the ropes binding Jack's chest and legs to the beam in the center of the room. Dropping the knife she use her newly freed hand to hold him firmly in front of her. She planned to use him as a human shield.

Gwen stepped through the still smoking hole; gun first, just as Jack had taught her. He was simultaneously proud and terrified. Comparing Gwen's handgun to the monstrous weapon Jacqueline was carrying Jack revised his previous thought. He was just plain terrified. Why hadn't she left him to deal with this on his own?

"Easy on the trigger finger, I'm here to negotiate."

"Really? And what's my incentive for not shooting you dead right now?" Jack could only hope that Gwen had a good plan worked out.

"Because I have something you want and I guarantee you won't find it if you don't make a deal with me." He did not like where this was going. Gwen couldn't possibly be considering ransoming Max's devise. What the machine did it must have been more than a simple time/space teleport. It had to be kept away from sociopaths like Jacqueline at any cost.

"And what exactly is it that you think I want."

"The prototype you stole from the Time Agency and sold to Ritvik who Max in turn stole it from." Max had evidently come clean to Gwen. If that was true Jack had to believe Max was working with her and they had some kind of plan.

"My, my sharing a few confidences aren't we Max? I would have thought your training had taught you better than that. So you're willing to give up the prototype in exchange for what? Him?" Jack found the skepticism in her voice vaguely insulting, even as he prayed she was right.

"Yes." Gwen sounded sincere even to Jack's ears. The sound horrified him. This couldn't be the plan. His second in command would not do this, endanger thousands, maybe millions for the sake of one. His second in command wouldn't, but Gwen might have.

"Max I must say I'm impressed. I've always considered you talented, but you must have given some performance-"

"Do we have a deal or not?" Where were Max and Ianto? They wouldn't have left Gwen to do this on her own. They could be near by ready to spring some kind of trap. They had to be. Unless…unless they didn't know she was here. Unless they wouldn't go along with the crazy plan she'd come up with, like trading the prototype for him. Jack tried to read Gwen's eyes, but they were focused on Jacqueline.

"Not. How stupid do you think I am nobody trades time agency technology for a lay, no matter how good they are. Still you did come after him which would indicate you do have some kind of attachment. These are my terms: You will personally bring me the prototype and you will do within the next thirty minutes or I will kill your lover and then come after you. Do we have an understanding?" Jack mentally begged Gwen to refuse. Jacqueline would not deal fairly, she would kill Gwen and bring more death to an untold number of people.

"Understand this, if you don't surrender right now, you're going to regret it." That was the Gwen he knew and loved, brash and brave. Hopefully Gwen had something to back-up the threat with.

"Really? And what are you going to do? Shoot around the hostage at a moving target? Forgive me if I doubt you're actually that good." Gwen's eyes locked on his and he read her emotions as easily as if they'd been written on a billboard. Fear, guilt, pain. He knew what she planned to do. He only hoped it work.

"You're right, I'm not." Gwen fired. Jack was dead before his body hit the floor.


	23. Chapter 23

Considering the number of times Jack had been shot in the head, you'd think he'd have become use to the pain. He should have built up some kind of immunity. Sadly it hurt as much as it had the first time.

"Do you people ever get use to watching him do that? I find it really creepy myself." The optic center of his brain seemed to be repairing itself. The blurry figures were coming into sharper focus by the second. He could finally distinguish it was Max was hovering over him. Beyond the face he could make up the grey ceiling of the Hub. It must have taken him a while to regenerate. Jacquelyn's handiwork was probably responsible. Jacquelyn! The last thing he remember was Gwen and the rogue agent in a potentially deadly stand off.

"Gwen?! Where's Gwen?"! Jack sat up, a little too quickly for someone who'd had as "serious" a head injury as he'd just had.

"Easy there Captain, she's down in medical, patching up the damage she did to our ex. Apparently she didn't want Jacquelyn dying before rotting a long, long time in lock-up." Jack couldn't understand that. Gwen did what she had to in the line of duty, but the watching her enemies suffer wasn't really her thing.

"That doesn't sound like Gwen." Who it sounded like was Jack, on one of his darker days.

"Apparently you were in pretty bad shape even before she put a bullet in your head. She took offence. How does that work anyway?" Max was nothing if not curious.

"How does what work?"

"Non-life-threatening injuries. Do they heal fast too?" Jack considered all the split lips and bruises he'd gotten in the scuffles with dangerous aliens, and on occasion, his team.

"Not unless they are accompanied by a fatal wound. When my body reboots, it puts everything back the way it should be. That why the skin on my forehead doesn't have any scars." How many times had he been shot in the head anyway? It may have been a neat trick to other people, and most recently a good distraction, but Jack hoped it was a long time before he had to do that again.

"No, just a few wrinkles."

"Shut up."

"Hey, I'm not criticizing. Gwen seem to prefer the more mature look." Jack didn't have a chance to respond before Gwen and Ianto came up the stairs dragging what appeared to be a heavily sedated Jacquelyn. One of her wrist had been cuffed with the restraints Captain John had left behind Ianto clamped the other on to Max's wrist. He dropped the key into the clear plastic bag he was carrying.

"One key to impermeable cuffs, on time agency top-secret prototype, one rogue agent's wrist strap. I hope you enjoy your flight, sir." Ianto stuck out a hand to Max. Max grabbed it and pulled Ianto in for a one-armed hug/ass-grab. Jack shook his head. Some things just never changed.

"Thanks Ianto. Well this is it." Max flashed Jack his cheekiest smile. "Just one thing left to do." Max spun quickly took Gwen by the arm and pulled her in for the most passionate grand finale kiss Jack had ever seen. Before Jack could decide if hitting Max would be worth the end of the world, they had broken apart. Both were very red-faced. Max turned to Jack, his face accusatory.

"You can't honestly tell me I don't remember that."

Jack paused a moment, considering Max's words. Impossible. It is impossible to remember anything after being wiped by the Agency. Jack's own personal Retcon had nothing on the stuff the Agency uses to strip memory. And yet…hadn't Jack always felt he'd known Gwen? Hadn't he always trusted from the being with his biggest secrets. And the first time she'd kissed him, hadn't it felt like a sweet echo, a memory that he'd touched his lips in order to recall?

"You'll never truly forget it." Max smiled broadly at Jack's response.

"You hear that Gwen? One day I'll be back for you." And with a wink and a push of his wrist strap, Max and his prisoner were gone.

"What will happen to him?" Gwen had come to stand beside him. Jack looked down at her.

"Time Agency protocol for a mistake like this. They'll take his statement, the prototype and his prisoner, then remove any evidence that it ever happened."

"So when Max's wakes up tomorrow…" Jack's memory provided him with images of that crucial moment in his life. The confusion, the disbelief

"Everything that's happened to him from the time Jacquelyn became his partner until now will be gone. Two years of nothing. And they'll never tell him why." Jack saw himself going toe to toe with his superiors, demanding answers.

"Won't he be angry?" Angry doesn't begin to cover it.

"He'll be furious. He'll also be suddenly unsatisfied with his life. He'll have this sudden sense that something's waiting for him, something bigger, something more." It was Gwen. He had been missing Gwen. The woman he couldn't even remember. "Of course he'll have no clue what that something is, so he'll do a lot of stupid, selfish things trying to figure it out." Resigning, committing a number of dangerous, hugely lucrative, highly criminal acts. It was never enough. Something within him was never truly satisfied. He was looking for something he could not name and looking in all the wrong places. Until he found the Doctor. Helping others, saving the world, that was the road to finding her. "Eventually he'll find his way back here, like he promised."

"So what happens now?"

"Up to you. Are you heading home?" By Jack's count Gwen only had about four hours left. He held his breath as Gwen stared long and hard at the Hub's exit. Then she looked back at Jack, her eyes a little sad, but mostly hopeful.

"I am home."


End file.
